


Way Back Home (Radio Blues)

by LotharWinchester



Series: Fallout Snippets/ Shorts [28]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4, Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: F/M, New Vegas and Fallout 4 radio mentions, Not Beta Read, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Vulpes having an identity crisis, mentions of the Legion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-02
Updated: 2016-12-02
Packaged: 2018-09-03 18:34:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8725759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LotharWinchester/pseuds/LotharWinchester
Summary: Vulpes mulls over his situation with the Sole Survivor.





	

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimer: i don't own anything related to fallout, bethesda does.

The long months in the Commonwealth had changed him. He longed for the heat of New Vegas, the smells and sounds of the Legion camp, and, much to his chagrin, Radio New Vegas. Vulpes Inculta missed the old western tunes that had blared from the Courier’s Pipboy as she fulfilled her duties for Caesar. Travis’s voice annoyed him to no end. A perfect candidate for the cross.

Sanctuary Hills welcomed him.  Something he had initially laughed at, the ignorance of his Legion past and horrors they spread hadn’t reached the ears of many of Sanctuary’s settlers. The few wary of him were Preston, Mama Murphy, and some of the traders that passed through.  He respected the old mystic as he had the healers in Cottonwood Cove. She knew pieces of his past but allowed it to be his decision to tell Nora.

He stopped hammering siding together long enough to think back on their first meeting. Her shaking legs in her bright blue vault suit as she thanked him for saving her life.  It wasn’t until recently that he stayed for long periods of time. He’d left her in Diamond City after their first exchange and hadn’t shown her his face. He’d almost been recognized in his travels by then to know not to reveal himself.

His Yao Guai fur cloak had covered his form and face even in the harsh heat of summer and now protected him from the slight chill of fall.  The bottom jaw had been removed only for him to breathe and speak. The top portion of the animal’s face had remained to cover him. The only scrap of clothing to make it from New Vegas still in one piece was his black goggles.  They remained around his neck until the harsh Commonwealth winter, which would arrive soon, according to their seer.

He told himself over and over again that these changes were temporary and due to his increased time around Nora. She was similar to the Courier in sense of morality in that she helped everyone.  _Everyone_. From a ghoul boy locked in a fridge to the synth detective that sometimes stayed in Sanctuary.  She used all of the factions not only for her own personal gain, but to help the other survivors in the growing number of Minutemen settlements that he followed her to.

With the last bit of siding in place on the common house, Vulpes left the tools by Sturges’s workbench and grabbed his ripper. Domestic living did nothing for him. He preferred to hunt and patrol the gates to keep his mind occupied and the food stores full.

It also kept him away from Nora.

He could tell the growing distance between them hurt the Sole Survivor.  _“I had no one until I met you.”_   still haunted his dreams.  The way her voice shook as she held him in her arms nearly three weeks ago. 

_You’re becoming soft. A profligate. You even use their poison._

He had barely come to accept using stimpaks on his journey east.  The further away from the desert he got, the harder it was to make healing powder. And Nora had saved his life once in Goodneighbor by using stimpaks.  Something he tried not to dwell on as he passed by her home.

The new cloth shades had been pulled in the front window but the door was open.  His jaw clenched as he continued on Sanctuary’s main path.  He had shared her bed at the start in order to give the settlers more beds but now he mostly slept outside, anywhere were he could easily escape when she came looking for him.

Back when the Legion was still in power, he had planned on taking a wife after Hoover Dam like many other of Caesar’s highest officers.  The Courier had crossed his mind more than once in order to keep her away from the Legate.  Before he knew of her treachery. He had been blinded by his feelings for the woman and missed the obvious cues she had left behind that she was secretly NCR. He was unable to prepare himself or the rest of the Legion from their attack and many lives had paid for his mistake.

But now, Nora had taken Six’s place and he couldn’t shake her. With everything that had happened with the Railroad and Brotherhood so far, she continued to mirror Six with her double agent behavior he was privy to. A part of him wondered if his feelings for Nora were there only because they mirrored his feelings for the Courier.

Deep in his musings, he missed the crunching footfalls until it was too late to run.  Nora stood silently beside him as he stared out towards the Red Rocket station.

“You’re a hard man to pin down, John.”  His tribal name flew off her tongue easier than he would’ve liked. John Rene had died in Utah with his tribe.

Her semi soft hand, only slightly affected by her time outside of cryofreeze, gripped his calloused hand as she followed his gaze.  The common house radio blared behind them.

_“Don’t know why I left the homestead, I really must confess…”_

The touch had him reeling internally. It brought back memories of their nights together in the gas station before them. How hard he’d fucked her in the power armor station and when they’d had unrushed, uninterrupted sex on her mattress in the back room. Before the Courier and Nora, the only time he’d had sex with anyone was with slaves. The intimacy the two women brought was foreign to him.

“I don’t know what’s happened between us but I wanted to give you this.”  Nora held out a Pipboy and he slid it over his left wrist. “Mama told me you were missing home.”

He didn’t understand and the confusion must’ve shown on his face because Nora laughed and motioned towards his wrist. “Here, let me show you.”

Besides the games that had been downloaded by the first user, a whole subsection had been recently devoted to music. Including the songs from Radio New Vegas and Mojave Music Radio.

“I wanted to give it to you on your birthday but..” She chuckled in embarrassment as she turned the radio on, “I don’t know when it is.”

_“And then there suddenly appeared before me, The only one my arms would hold….”_

The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them, “the third of May.” His plans to prevent her from hugging him fell by the wayside as she wrapped her arms around him. He’d missed her warmth and her touch. “Thank you.”

He felt her nod against his leather armor and allowed her to stay in his arms until she felt like pulling away.  Before she left to tuck in for the night, she stopped at the bottom of the stairs. “Will you tell me more one day?”

Vulpes nodded once and let the radio play until dawn.

**Author's Note:**

> i know it's been about a month since I updated and I just want to thank my readers whether it's just for this fic or all of my other fics. i've had a hard time mentally over the last month.


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